Halfway through the Semester
So I’m finally out of the woods in terms of exams, seeing as how this will be my first week in over a month that I don’t have a midterm. Midterms are really scary because they are a huge chunk of your grade and they aren’t very forgiving if you don’t know the material. The structure of college courses is probably one of the most prevalent changes I need to adjust to. Unlike high school courses, the majority of the course is based on the exams, not necessarily on the homework. So there are those people who can just blow off all the homework, ace the exams, and come out with a 4.0 GPA. Unfortunately, I’m not part of that minority. I did well on my midterms only because I reviewed the homework and made sure I knew the material.
The upside of these kinds of classes is that if you put effort into the class initially, you don’t have to stress about grades as much. If manage to get good grades on the first two or three midterms, then there is an extremely low chance you’ll fail the class, not only because you’ve already locked down a good average in the class, but you also seem to know the material well enough to score well. It’s really all dependent on both your motivation to learn the material and your motivation to get a good grade. Personally, I’m very interested in math and physics, so in those classes I try and learn all the material and also get a good grade. The MATH241 course is substantially curved, so technically, I could get an 86% on all my exams and still get an A in the course. I, however, don’t want to measure my success by the performance of others, rather by my own performance. I’m still glad there is a curve though, because it’s a pretty hard class.
So midway through the first semester, what are my feelings about freshman year? I’m feeling good. My classes are going well and I haven’t messed up too badly so far. I can’t relax yet though because I know that there will be another throng of midterms coming at me in two weeks. This time though, I’ll be prepared because I know what the midterms will be like. I’m also learning better study habits and getting work done more efficiently. For example, right now I’m in the Grainger Engineering Library studying because I can always get more work done there than in my room. Being surrounded by a bunch of people studying is very motivating!
Leave a Response
Please note that responses close after 90 days.
